Does tanking carry more responsibility than most?

[AlrikRouge]

My first post here, and I have been a tank in this game since beta.

I don't personally find tanking to be 'easy' by all means, but.....

I ran across this post on reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...tank_shortage/

And there are spots in here that sort of make me question if tanking is really as hard as everyone makes it out to be.

For example, a few people are under the opinion that tanking is the 'easiest', and carries the least amount of responsibility in the group. That currently, tanks have been unfairly given the of responsibility 'unfairly'. But even then, its still not as 'difficult' as DPS jobs.

What do you think? Do you think being a tank role has a lot more 'perceived' pressure on it than actually exists? Or is it really that difficult?

IMO, every role is "easy" as soon as you know all the bits and pieces involved in it. Once you know the rotations, you get the most out of your DPS and enmity generation. Once you know the mechanics of a fight or the pulls of a dungeon and what to expect, healing, DPS and tanking are all easy. But that's because the person doing it knows what they are doing, how to do it, and when. And it becomes even easier when they know what NOT to do and when NOT to do something.

In my point of view, all DPS roles (not actions, such as tank or healer attacking) are the kill-support positions. Without them, most bosses are impossible to kill due to the mechanics of the fights, although with properly geared healers, you could even take out Titan HM (there are videos on that). Not sure about the Ex primals, but I'm sure there are those out there already trying it. While the dungeons themselves could be done, everything takes longer to get done.

As far as responsibility for the party, IMO both the tank and the healer have equal amounts: if the tank doesn't hold aggro, everyone can get hit or killed. If the healer doesn't heal everyone including the tank, everyone can die. If the tank holds all aggro, everyone can do their jobs. If the healer keeps everyone healed, they can do their jobs. I have yet to see a dungeon or raid done without at least one healer and one tank in the party. And I don't mean finishing a dungeon or boss when the tank and/or healer die. (Though, when I think about it, you could probably pull it off on a CM run)

But what people are usually held responsible for is also important - a tank is held responsible for moving everyone through the dungeon as fast or as slow as everyone likes or wants it to be done. They are also held responsible for keeping attacks on everyone else in the party to a minimum (the minimum being mechanics - for example: boss randomly casts magic against a random member, or adds are not expected to be gotten like in AK on the first boss or just ignoring them on the second boss).

And a healer is also held responsible for helping on DPS should the tank be highly experienced and not at all squishy.

To sum it all up, again in my humble opinion, I think both healer and tank are held responsible for most aspects and the flow of things. Bad tank or bad healer, usually things fall apart. Having both at the same time, it never succeeds. Bad or slow DPS, you could still potentially pull things off. Note I said bad or slow, not "no DPS".

But because the tank is held responsible for the flow and movement of everything in addition to their basic function of holding enmity, I think they have slightly more responsibility then the rest. Not by much, but by a small margin above a healer.

Note well - none of the above is really in discussion of skill and expertise involved in using a character. I myself have no immediate intention of learning the rotations and skills necessary to be a perfect MNK or DRG, or how to set things up perfectly as a SCH to single handedly heal Titan Ex or Coil. The above is all about my views on who is more responsible for and who is held more responsible for what in a party.